Compost: The king of food waste

Compost 101

Go take a look in your garbage bin.

Seriously, go. I’ll still be here 🙂

Alright, thanks for coming back. Now the question is, what was in there?

If you are anything like I was about a year ago you would find everything from plastic lids, to plastic wrap, to cardboard, and most of all…what makes the garbage stinky and gross…Food Waste.

Food waste. Organic material. It came from nature and since it is food it is really easy to return it to nature.

But it doesn’t get there if it is thrown in a landfill. In a landfill, food doesn’t decompose very well. Neither does paper for that matter, but that is another blog post.

Anyway, everything from the peels of potatoes, to the seeds of watermelons can be composted.

What is Compost?

COMPOST- the act of letting food waste decompose until it turns into this amazing organic matter that is 10x better than processed fertilizer.

Believe me, your plants and gardens will thank you for this precious gift of your food scraps. They love it!

Now, before you regale me with how composting is “difficult” or “too time consuming” or “expensive to buy a composter”, let me tell you that it is one of the easiest things I have done to cut down on my waste.

That’s right, easy.

Long story short, I turned an old garbage can into my make-shift composter and it works beautifully. I was also one of those people who was concerned about spending money on a composting contraption, so I simply made my own. It took ten minutes. Ten minutes to divert tons of food waste from my trash can.

There are many different methods to compost food waste, you can also use your compost for yard waste too:

1. Use a regular compost bin, store bought if you like or you can make your own the same way that I did. I’ll link my post about how I did it at the bottom.
2. Buy a worm bin, worms are amazing eaters and they can completely consume your waste with very little fuss.
3. Use municipal composting bins if your city provides them.
4. Or you could get really crafty and find that one friend who has a garden or a farm and ask them if they would like your waste to compost.

There is no one right way to compost, it is really just about letting the food rot and turn back into soil. It is one major step that you can take to cut your waste by at least a third.

If you would like to read about how some of us Zero Waste Bloggers compost, check out these fabulous posts!

My DIY compost post- https://babystepsgoinggreen.wordpress.com/2015/12/04/composting-like-a-boss/

Nadine with ZeroJourney – Composting like a boss

Greenwithit – Why composting is my worst nightmare

Plastic is Rubbish – How to rot

Tiny Yellow Bungalow –Composting for rookies

GRüNISH – Earth master and yard butler

• About
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Candice Szlaga

Inspired to live a waste-less life, Candice is on the path to minimalism and Zero-Waste. Blogging about the trials and successes, babystepsgoinggreen.wordpress.com is where you can explore the baby-steps she is taking towards a better life.

Latest posts by Candice Szlaga (see all)

• Compost: The king of food waste - December 29, 2015
• Baby Steps Going Green- Candice - October 18, 2015